When 12-year-old Sydney Keiser felt her tongue swelling up and her throat begin to close after eating a Christmas treat on Dec. 16, she knew what needed to happen.
"Sydney was staying up late, having a snack and ... I had just gone to bed about 20 minutes earlier," Sydney's mom, Angie Keiser, tells TODAY.com from their Georgia home. "She threw open the door, turned on the light and said, 'I need you to give me my epi!'"
Sydney was referencing an epinephrine auto-injector, a medical device used to deliver epinephrine to quickly treat a severe allergic reaction, aka anaphylaxis.
"Epinephrine is the first line treatment for anaphylaxis in both children and adults," Dr. Wesley Sublett, allergist and chair of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Anaphylaxis Committee, tells TODAY.com. "It should be administered as soon as anaphylaxis is recognized to prevent the progression to life-threatening symptoms."
Keiser tells TODAY.com she always thought she would be nervous to administer the drug, which involves injecting the medicine into the thigh, or how she would know the proper time to use the injector.
"But when you see your child in distress, you just know," she says, adding that she didn't take time to check ingredients on what her daughter had been eating or ask questions. "It was all very quick."
At age 2, Sydney was diagnosed with an allergy to peanuts and tree nuts.
“The very first time that she tasted peanut butter, she had a reaction, so that’s how we knew,” Keiser says. Blood tests later confirmed the allergy, and “it’s been almost eleven years to the week of her diagnosis.”
The Atlanta-based pre-teen had ingested cinnamon bread from a brand she knows and trusts, and the label did not contain any ingredients that include Sydney’s allergens.
“This was a cross contamination issue. The label says that it’s made in a bakery where tree nuts (and) eggs may be used,” Keiser explains. “She eats the bagels from this brand all the time, and it has the same warning, so we had picked up the bread that day and she decided to have that as a snack that night.”
After injecting Sydney, Keiser and her husband took their daughter to a nearby emergency room, where the 12-year-old was closely monitored as the epinephrine wore off.
"They gave her Benadryl and a dose of steroids and kept an eye on her and made sure that she was OK and not having another reaction," Keiser says.
The Keiser family has been very careful to avoid Sydney's allergies for more than a decade and never needed to use an epinephrine auto-injector before that day.
"It’s really easy when you haven't used it to become kind of lax about it," Keiser says. "You kind of forget because you haven't had that experience. But every now and then, I read someone else's story and it's like ... stuff can happen, you better be prepared."
Keiser says she refilled Sydney’s injector eight days before the incident, as they typically need to be replaced about once a year.
The family decided together to share Sydney's story — in detail — on social media with the hope that it would shine a light on the severity of food allergies and the importance of epinephrine.
"I wanted there to be some awareness (because) based on all the stories I’ve read from other families who have been through similar situations where kids did not survive, it’s because they didn't get that epinephrine at all, or fast enough," Keiser says. "My only hope in sharing all the details is to help someone feel more prepared when it happens for them."
The post, which has garnered more than 18,000 likes and 500 comments on Instagram.
“There are so many people who have an allergy, and it’s always around,” Keiser stresses, adding that the holidays present even more challenges. “I think the more awareness there are about food allergies — that it’s a legitimate concern — the better.”
Sublett agrees, adding that the holidays are a stressful time of the year for parents of children with food allergies.
"Carrying an epinephrine auto-injector and reviewing a food allergy action plan to recognize signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis are paramount to keeping your child safe," Sublett says. "If faced with symptoms consistent with anaphylaxis, remember, 'epi first, epi fast,' as epinephrine is the only approved treatment for anaphylaxis."
